Journals Of A Young Pharmacist

A Day In The Life Of A Community Pharmacist; Saturday Edition.

A day in the life of a community pharmacist Saturday Edition.

Being a Community Pharmacist is different from a typical 9-5 Job, it involves working long hours and most Saturdays. I am lucky I only have to work till 1pm on Saturdays.

Let me take you through A Day In The Life Of A Community Pharmacist.
My first task is to sign-in and assume the role of the responsible pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy premises. I attempt to make a schedule for the day which doesn’t always go as planned; Saturdays are unpredictable

My next job is usually to pre-pack Substance Misuse Scripts, this allows me to look at the scripts with a fresh eye in the morning thus a smooth transaction later in the day.
I also attempt to check the Call-Back scripts from Friday. I use the word attempt because being a Saturday the surgery closed, I am bound to come across a hand written or ambiguous script. Example

Patient interaction is a key part of a pharmacist role, through out the course of the day, I am called to counsel patient and provide relevant advice on treating minor illness.

It will not be a complete Saturday without a patient running out of medication. After following appropriate protocols, I am able to make a professional judgement either to offer emergency supply or refer patient to out of hours doctors or other suitable healthcare professional.

Just when I am running low on task to complete, the stock order will arrive. I have a personal hate relationship with the stock order, I do not like an untidy dispensary; bumping into totes (not fun). Hence why I am pro put the stock away and redeem the outstanding prescriptions as soon as possible .

Once the order is put away, I serve some more customers, solve queries and provide various pharmaceutical services such as emergency hormonal contraceptive wala it is 1pm. End of shift.
I aim to leave the workbenches and floor clean and tidy.